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Monday, June 11, 2012

Indiana Democratic Party Platform to Oppose Marriage Amendment

The ball is already rolling on an amendment that will ban same-sex marriage in Indiana, but the Indiana Democratic Party Platform will oppose it.

According to reports, Senator Vi Simpson announced on Saturday at Indy Pride that this unprecedented plank in the Indiana Democratic Party platform would be adopted at the Indiana Democratic Party Convention in Fort Wayne. The Indiana Equality is reporting that all statewide candidates including John Gregg signed off on the plank.

From Indiana Equality:

On Saturday, Senator Vi Simpson made a dramatic announcement concerning the Democratic Party state platform.
As of late Friday, language was added that OPPOSES ANY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT REGARDING MARRIAGE. PERIOD.

Vi made the announcement at Indy Pride. The particular language is unprecedented in any Indiana party platform. It involved much work over the past week.

All statewide Democratic candidates, including Mr. Gregg, signed-off on the language. Vi pushed as hard as she could.

We are tremendously grateful. A new day in statewide politics has dawned.

The platform will be formally adopted at the Democratic State Convention this coming week.

As you may recall, the amendment rolled through the Indiana House and Senate in the 2011 session. It now must do it again in 2013 (or 2014) before reaching the voters in a referendum. The Governor of Indiana can certainly oppose the amendment but cannot block it. It will go directly to the voters if it passes again during the next biennium.

4 comments:

Point of Fact: Not to spoil the mood... but there is an error here. The Libertarian Party of Indiana holds the platform of the LNC. The LNC platform has included LGBT equality since 1971 (before most other organizations even included Transgender).

From the Libertarian Party platform:1.3 Personal Relationships"Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government's treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws. Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict personal relationships. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships."

I personally think this move by the Democratic Party of Indiana is one that should be championed and talked about EVERYWHERE. But, there needs to be honesty about it. Such as... this does not bind the Democrat members of the General Assembly that voted for HJR-6 and the Democrats are the second party to finally adopt a real pro-LGBT stance.

So many folks in both parties and both in and outside of the Hoosier LGBT community, remain oblivious as to how the right-wing-religious zealouts hoodwinked the General Assembly into passing the amendment this time around.

They forget that the prior version only limited the courts from "imposing" marriage equality. They insisted that lawmakers could still rightfully pass civil union and domestic partnership measures, and that such arrangements related to employment would not be affected. But the revised version says that these things "shall not be recognized"....period.

Maybe that's why Mike Pence's pick for GOP Lieutenant Governor, Sue Ellspermann, voted to entirely remove the second second sentece of the amendment, which had pushed it far beyond what it once was. When someone as "family values" oriented as she has difficulty with these excesses, something has to be seriously wrong.